19 poets, 23 artists, 3 musicians and a Viking Boat

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Vikings Ahoy!

Good News!

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I am very pleased to announce that The Nine Realms has been co-funded by Arts Council England alongside Norfolk County Council, which is absolutely thrilling and a testament to the talents, creativity and skills of all 45 creatives involved in The Nine Realms!

HOWEVER,

we are still missing some vital funds to cover the commissioning costs of the carving of our Viking boat, the focal point of our project. This is whyour Indiegogo campaign is starting next week on Monday 20th April,to cover these costs. Mark, our great woodcarver, is going to start his LIVE-WOODCARVING, and I’m really excited to see what Mark is going to create for us. To have regular, live updates will be a wonderful thing. We can watch our boat emerge!

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Our campaign is still crucial because it will be the final piece in our funding jigsaw. As soon as the campaign goes live I will post out the project link which will take you to our campaign. Any support you could give us would be MUCH appreciated and will help showcase the talents of 45 global creatives ‘Magicking the Norse World to life’ for the general public and schools!

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FIDDLING and FINALISING

I have spent the last couple of months creating the video for our campaign and I think I am now there with it. Still a few more tweaks on the campaign text, but we’re nearly there with that too. Big thanks goes to poet and writer Robin Sounder for her input.

I think it will be exciting to see what we can achieve as a collective. This phase of our fundraising always tends to bring the Vikings/creatives together in a more overt way, in pursuit of one aim.

The details of the 4 competitions are also being finalised, and it will be great to see what energy that will bring. The prize will be a multimedia event DVD of The Nine Realms. This includes all the selected poetry, all the art and music, as well as any poems/artwork from the pupils at the schools with whom we are working . The DVD will be in a specially designed slipcase byGary Caldwell

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PROMOTION AND INTERVIEWS THROUGHOUT THE CAMPAIGN:

This evening I shall be having a chat via Skype with podcaster Amber Love about The Nine Realms and creativity.The podcast will be going out on Monday 4th May. Amber hosts VODKA O’CLOCK where she interviews people from all areas of the arts and entertainment. An article with the King’s Lynn News is also going to go out across the campaign, and hopefully some interviews and promos viaFuture Radio. These will feature both poets, artists and Mark. I am at present in discussion with their arts programme producer as to the exact nature of how we will be featured. It will be exciting to share what we are doing with Norwich listeners, and then share our poetry and art with them in September!

I think that is it for now! Here’s to the launch of our campaign next Monday!

The logo is based on the Yggasdril Tree which is central to Norse Mythology and their myths of cosmology. All the nine realms come off the tree. The realms are represented by the different coloured balls within the tree (including the main one). This logo will be used on all our promotional material.

We have decided to call the event in Hanse House in September an ‘experience’ rather than an exhibition. This is for 3 reasons: 1. because of the high levels of participation and interaction there will be with attendees and pupils (at our schools’ day); 2. because we want to move attendees away from merely attending to active participation and 3. because we want to take attendees on a the magical journey supported by the realm music, lighting, poetry and art. We want to trigger the senses and the imagination.

I hope you all like it.

Gary has done all our previous logos forTransformations (last year’s large-scale) and our ArtiPeeps logo. Here are the other two logos Gary created for us:

Thank you Gary, for designing something so striking and memorable for The Nine Realms.

I thought it was about time to let you all know the progress The Nine Realms has been making. Here’s what’s afoot!:

Funding Applications

I’m still in the midst of the funding applications. I sent off The Norfolk County Council application this last Thursday to help with the hire of Hanse House. I’m now onto the Arts Council England form which will go off in the middle of February. We shall hear from the County Council within 4-6 weeks, and from the Arts Council in early to Mid-April. Two trust letters are also being written to help with the costs of the hire of Hanse House and the schools’ day. The overall cost of the 5-day event will be approximately £12, 008 and we are applying for a grant of approximately £10,000 from Arts Council England. What we are creating is a high quality arts event.

The Nine Realms Logo:

I’m also pleased to announce that our logo is nearly, nearly ready! Illustrator and Artist Gary Caldwellhas done a brilliant job, but there’s just one more tweak! It’s our take on the Yggdrasil tree and it incorporates 9 circles representing the nine realms. We have decided to call our 5 day event an ‘experience’ rather than an event, because of the way we are using the combined arts (6 art forms) plus lighting and music and lots of interaction and participation from the attendees. Our intention is to move attendees away from merely ‘attending’ to ‘participating’. This intention will feed into all our future projects from now on. We want to challenge perceptions through our large-scale work and shake things up a bit!

New Member of the ArtiPeeps Management Committee

I’m also very pleased to announce that Kate Garrett has now formerly taken up the position of Secretary in the ArtiPeeps’ Management Committee- writing up and and managing our minutes, and Face-timing into our monthly meetings. It’s a pleasure for us that Kate is formerly on board!

Crowdfunding

At the moment our crowdfunding campaign for Mark Crowley’sviking boat will more than likely start on Monday 20th April. This is before the majority of the artwork comes in, but I think it will be great to reveal the artwork as the campaign progresses. The AtiPeeps Management Committee had a meeting last week, and it is more than likely that we are going to move our campaign to Indiegogo, which may well be better for a voluntary organisation like us. We also confirmed some of the rewards which are going to range from a Viking Norse wooden medalion carved by Mark, to a Rune poem, to having your initials carved on the boat. I’m going to get some feedback from the Viking participants and then I canrelease a full list in another update.

Norwich Poetry Reading

Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, (the most popular library in the UK…)

I had a great meeting with Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library in The Forum the week before last, and we have finalised the details of the poetry reading we are going to hold there on the Monday of our event. It’s going to be part of their Poetry Unbound Series and will run from approximately 5.45- 7.30 pm on Monday 14th September, with an open mic poetry session in the last half hour for the general public. They will be clearing space for us on the ground floor, and there is a maximum audience of 100. It is also being recorded by Future Radio and sections of it will be broadcast on one of their programmes. It’s going to be advertised in the library’s promotional material and The Forum’s, as well as The Writer’s Centre in Norwich. Poets and artists can also bring along their merchandise/books and sell them. There is a taster exhibition space in the foyer of the library and we can put examples of the poetry and art work there a week beforehand. We won’t be able to take the actual pictures from The King’s Lynn exhibition but we could put some giclees in…….

I’ve attached 3 pictures of the library to give you an idea of the space. It’s a beautiful building:

Looking at the diary yesterday, I realised I have not done an ArtiPeeps Update for a while, and there has been a lot going on in terms of development. Last month we finally opened our official bank account as an organisation. This is in preparation for the fundraising for ‘Transformations’. I have to say that it all felt very grown up, and a bit of a benchmark for us! There’s nothing in it at the moment, but I’m sure that will change when our sponsorship drive kicks in! At the moment it feels like lots of little jigsaw pieces are being lain down in readiness for the completion of the whole picture. It’s amazing how one big movement, a coming together, is so overwhelmingly dependent on so many smaller pieces sliding into position behind it….

So where to begin: at this very moment I’m pulling together our ‘Transformations’ Kickstarter Campaign Page’ together in preparation for our launch. A video beckons immanently- very ‘where do you want me Mr De Mille!’

We’re nearly there with the special logo/badge designed for our ‘Transformations’ Kickstarter campaign. It’s been created by Gary Caldwell (who did our ArtiPeeps logo). As with the previous logo, it has taken a lot of tweaking, and there has been a lot of too-ing and fro-ing with the image over the last month or so, but we’re there with it now. As soon as I have shown it too the Transformers I’ll release it generally. The idea is that you’ll be able to ‘grab’ it to help us promote the exhibition and project as our Kickstarter campaign kicks off. I had intended for sponsorship letters to have gone out by now, but we needed the logo for the letterheads so now we have it- out into the world the letters can go.

In terms of funding applications, I am also about to send off our first grant bid to Norwich Borough County Council. This is for the hire of Hanse House across the 3 days: 12, 13, 14th September. It will take six weeks for us to find out if we’ve got the money, which will impact our Kickstarter project goal/sum. We will start our Kickstarter campaign for ‘Transformations’ as soon as we’ve heard. I’m hoping for Monday 24th April, but it may still have to be put back if we haven’t heard by then. There’s nothing much I can do about that, apart from accept it as the nature of the beast! Then it will be onto preparing an application to The Jarrolds Trust in March, for the commissioning of the cartoon (see below) and the framing and mounting of 6-7 pictures for the exhibition (for those creatives who can’t get to King’s Lynn geographically). The Chair of ArtiPeeps and I have been tucked away together calculating for the last month in order to get all the figures right. It’s been a real eye-openner and felt more than a bit Dickensian, but necessary: very, very necessary…

At the end of this month too, we are also going to be amalgamating the poets and the artists from ‘Transformations’ into one group, which will be a fine feeling in readiness for the campaign and for the conclusion of the online project in March, and our transition into the phase that takes us to the actual concrete event. The poetry for the project will still continue to be posted out through our up-and-coming season.

It is my plan in May to start to plan the next large-scale project which will be the Norse Sagas. If any poets, writers or artists are interested in getting involved do let me know, via the contact form on the What’s On page or via Twitter @ArtiPeeps .

The Code Crimson, the great duo of cartoonists and artists in Florida, California, are also at this moment creating the cartoon which is portraying the material and stories from books 1,3, and 8 of Metamorphoses. This is in alignment with the requirements of the Classical Civilisations A/S which includes Metamorphoses. This will be displayed alongside the main exhibition as an innovative access point for children and adults. Our plan is to make the first day of the exhibition a schools day for this reason.

The re-designing of the ArtiPeeps website is still ongoing, but we are nearly there now. The wire frame and design is nearly done and then the coding will start. Unfortunately it won’t be ready for either the start of the season or the Kickstarter. However, there’s no point in rushing something that is going to make such a difference. It’s better to get it right and take our time. Suffice it to say I’m very happy with it, and it will make a huge difference to how our opportunities are presented which is a brilliant thing.

It’s also time for me to announce the next sequence of poems selected for the exhibition from Books 8-11:

Book 8:

Richard Biddle-A Humble Marriage

Nell Perry- Philemon and Baucis

Karin Heyer- Icarus Transformed

John Mansell- Philemon and Baucis

Book 9:

Sadaf Fatima- FlipSide

James Knight- Lotis

Love Transcends- Carol Robson

Byblis writes a love letter – Rebecca Audra Smith

Book 10:

Richard Biddle- Thoughtform (after Pygmalion)

Nat Hall- Wild Vows

Greg Mackie- That Loser Pygmalion (with apologies to Ovid)

Adam Wimbush- Cyparrisus

Book 11:

Kate Garrett- This guy Midas

James Knight-Prime Cut

Nell Perry- Turned To Birds

Rebecca Audra Smith- How to kill Orpheus

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I think that is about it for the moment. I’m really excited about the great season of work that’s immanently going to start from Monday 3rd March. We’ve got a wide range of Showcases, ‘FreeSpaces’ and some really great poetry, writing and mental health collaborations involving a broad range of creatives. It’s going to be good!!

I’m also full of anticipation about our ‘Transformations’ Kickstarter campaign for our exhibition which will hopefully nestle, and then explode, right in the middle of it all! It’s a big adventure and gamble into the unknown. I know it’s a bit early to say this, but we absolutely need your support with our campaign so we can make the exhibition happen, so watch out for the start of it!

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Lydia Allison our ‘Writer In Residence’ for the month of October.

..and a new Halloween Monster !

‘I often just write what I feel. I have a real interest in physicality/beauty/deformity as I think image impacts on everyone. I’m particularly interested in how people see themselves and how that influences their appearance or physicality subconsciously/metaphorically in terms of their feeling or actively by self harm/eating disorders. And I’m interested in perceptions of beauty and body dysmorphia’.

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Happy Halloween Everyone!

And to celebrate we’re not only offering you Lydia’s final poem focusing on deformation, specially written to pull the project together but also a new monster formed out of all the poem illustrations by the artists involved in this project who have been inspired by Lydia’s poems. You probably haven’t seen anything like it before! This has been created by Sara Mena(you can see the image she contributed last week here).

The talented artists collaborating in Lydia’s project alongside Sara have been Gary Caldwell (whose art work went out in our first post here) andAmanda Santos (whose art work went out a fortnight ago here) and Diana Probst (whose art work you can see here).

We hope you’ve enjoyed the juxtaposition of words and images over the weeks, and a big thank you to Lydia for providing the artists with such a rich source of imagery and themes. We’ve enjoyed having you and your poetry with us. I really hope the connection will continue. And another BIG thank you to Gary, Amanda, Diana and Sara for their terrific artwork, which you can see collectively transformed below.

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Our Collaborative Poem Monster

Claws

by Lydia Allison

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Please click on the poem image to enlarge if you need to

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Writer’s Biography

‘I’ve been writing for a couple of years and am currently in my final year of my BA in Creative Writing. Two years ago I thought it would be a miracle for me to string lines into poetry, but quickly fell in love with it and proved myself wrong. My real passion lies between the border of poetry and prose.’

Lydia Allison our ‘Writer In Residence’ for the month of October.

..and the ever-changing Halloween Monster !

‘I often just write what I feel. I have a real interest in physicality/beauty/deformity as I think image impacts on everyone. I’m particularly interested in how people see themselves and how that influences their appearance or physicality subconsciously/metaphorically in terms of their feeling or actively by self harm/eating disorders. And I’m interested in perceptions of beauty and body dysmorphia’.

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Here’s the fourth of five poems on deformation by Lydia Allison illustrated this week by artist Sara Mena. You’ll also find the third instalment of our ever-morphing, dastardly collaborative monster. This drawing is being collectively produced and passed from artist-to artist week-by-week- all contributing to one image.

So….each week you’ve been presented with a new poem and two new images/artworks (one illustration & one growing monster) today is the final poem and monster completion before the grande reveal next week of a new poem by Lydia especially written for the culmination of this project and the final collaborative version of the monster in situ for Halloween on the 31st.

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He’s amphibian….who’d of thought…

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Writer’s Biography

‘I’ve been writing for a couple of years and am currently in my final year of my BA in Creative Writing. Two years ago I thought it would be a miracle for me to string lines into poetry, but quickly fell in love with it and proved myself wrong. My real passion lies between the border of poetry and prose.’

Artist’s Biography:

“HI I’m Sara Mena, i’m a freelance illustrator and 2D artist and very positive with life and with the things I love. I was born in 1985 and although I have a BA in Graphic Design I was always drawn to the visual arts and illustration and decided to go that way. I like to work in paper and digital, usually mixing those two. I’m passionate with expression and emotion in paintings and drawings and I like merging media to find new ways of expression and to convey responses. At present time, I’m doing figurative work, science art and also art for videogames. Sometimes I work in some art exhibitions. I’m glad to be able to work with such different areas, they make me use different techniques and make me think in particular ways, that helps me grow and expand my art.

Lydia Allison our ‘Writer In Residence’ for the month of October.

..and the ever-changing Halloween Monster!

‘I often just write what I feel. I have a real interest in physicality/beauty/deformity as I think image impacts on everyone. I’m particularly interested in how people see themselves and how that influences their appearance or physicality subconsciously/metaphorically in terms of their feeling or actively by self harm/eating disorders. And I’m interested in perceptions of beauty and body dysmorphia’.

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Here’s the third of five poems on deformation by Lydia Allison illustrated this week by artist Diana Probst(See her biography below). You’ll also find the third instalment of our ever-morphing, dastardly collaborative monster. This drawing is being collectively produced and passed from artist-to artist week-by-week- all contributing to one image.

The artists collaborating in Lydia’s project alongside Diana are Gary Caldwell (whose art work went out in our first post here) and Amanda Santos (whose art work went out last week here) and Sara Mena (whose art work is still to come).

So….each week you’ll be presented with a new poem and two new images/artworks (one illustration & one growing monster). You’ll be introduced to each artist as we go along too.

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Please do click on the image to enlarge

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Cauliflower Heart

by Lydia Allison

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You see them, don’t you? These little scars just below where my bra sits? In the right light they shine like new You noticed my fingers blackened at the tips nails hard feeling gone

. I know, I’m trying not to slouch, but can’t you see the ropes? Woven thick and reaching down? All these tendons from tired knee to toe are old rubber bands I can’t reach any more stretch…….. leap……fall best foot worn

. these stitches run like ladders pulling holes but not everyone can see like you they see: red wine purple teeth cheshire cat grin but not the split fruit skin, and under it all the hard tissue grows.

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Writer’s Biography

‘I’ve been writing for a couple of years and am currently in my final year of my BA in Creative Writing. Two years ago I thought it would be a miracle for me to string lines into poetry, but quickly fell in love with it and proved myself wrong. My real passion lies between the border of poetry and prose.’

Artist’s Biography:

Diana is a young artist in Cambridge, who is continually surprised that people will pay her to do what she loves. She likes beer and being paid on time. She has illustrated two books and a lot of bits of paper. She wants to paint portraits, takes commissions, and drinks tea like it is water.

To get involved contact us via any of the comments boxes on our posts/pages or @ArtiPeeps. You would be very welcome!

Vikings Ahoy! It’s The Nine Realms!

ONGOING EPICS

THE NINE REALMS (2014-2015):
Watch this space for our next 9-month large-scale collaborative project ! Starting in the 2nd Week of October 2014. Inspired by the Norse Sagas and Norse Cosmology, Giving creative opportunities to nearly 50 creatives. We'll be combining poetry, prose, art, music and sculpting a Viking boat out of ash, Vikings Ahoy!!!

The Nine Realms Poetry Playlist

The Nine Realms Realm Music

PAST EPIC COLLABORATIONS

TRANSFORMATIONS (2013-2014)

A POETRY AND ART EPIC:

31 Creatives from all around the world and the UK showcased through 1 Contemporary Reworking of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Making the virtual real via a poetry-art exhibition held at Hanse House, Norfolk, 12-14th September 2014,

The launch of our large-scale exhibition template to be used to give creatives from all disciplines collaborative opportunities year on year.

Wisdom & Mindfulness

ArtiPeeps Videos On Vimeo

Osho: From The Book of Understanding

EXPRESS YOURSELF IN AS MANY WAYS AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT FEAR.THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR.THERE IS NOBODY WHO IS GOING TO PUNISH OR REWARD YOU. EXPRESS YOUR BEING IN ITS TRUEST FORM, IN ITS NATURAL FLOW, YOU WILL BE REWARDED IMMEDIATELY, NOT TOMORROW BUT TODAY, HERE & NOW. YOU ARE PUNISHED ONLY WHEN YOU GO AGAINST YOUR NATURE. BUT THE PUNISHMENT IS A HELP. IT IS SIMPLY AN INDICATION THAT YOU HAVE MOVED AWAY FROM NATURE, THAT YOU HAVE GONE A LITTLE ASTRAY-OFF THE ROAD-COME BACK. PUNISHMENT IS NO REVENGE.NO, PUNISHMENT IS ONLY AN EFFORT TO WAKE YOU UP: 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' . SOMETHING IS WRONG, SOMETHING IS GOING AGAINST YOURSELF. THAT'S WHY THERE IS PAIN, THERE IS ANXIETY.

EVOLUTION IS INTRINSIC TO MAN'S NATURE, EVOLUTION IS HIS VERY SOUL, AND THOSE WHO TAKE THEMSELVES FOR GRANTED REMAIN UNFULFILLED. THOSE WHO THINK THEY ARE BORN COMPLETE REMAIN UNEVOLVED. THEN THE SEED REMAINS THE SEED. IT NEVER BECOMES A TREE AND NEVER KNOWS THE JOYS OF SPRING AND THE SUNSHINE AND THE RAIN AND THE ECSTASY OF BURSTING INTO MILLIONS OF FLOWERS.